Much like George Orwell's classic 1984, wars continue in the technology industry without seeming regard for who the enemy is or who it once was. Take, for example, Nokia's embrace of Windows Phone and Microsoft's subsequent embrace of Nokia. The once global smartphone leader initially championed Symbian as a countermeasure to the threat of phone domination by Microsoft. However, Nokia ultimately joined Microsoft in a bid to prevent the same from happening with Android.

At last, the will-it-or-won't-it drama surrounding Apple's rumored acquisition of PrimeSense is over. The iPhone maker has confirmed the deal with AllThingsD, issuing its now familiarstatement that it buys smaller companies "from time to time." The company isn't discussing its plans or the terms of the deal, but ATD's sources claim that PrimeSense sold for about $360 million, or more than the $345 million that Calcalist reported a week ago. Whatever the value, it's clear that motion control will play a role in Apple's future -- the crew in Cupertino now has access to 3D sensor technology that works in everything from living room devices to smartphones.

Update: PrimeSense has confirmed the acquisition to us, stating "We can confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this stage."

Remember that Apple / PrimeSense deal that was rumored to be going down in July? It may have just gone through: according to Israeli news source Calcalist, Cupertino acquired the motion sensing technology firm for $345 million this weekend. If true, it could hint at future Apple products with natural, motion controlled interfaces, integrating the same kind of technology that PrimeSense used to help Microsoft build the first Kinect. In a statement to the TheNextWeb, PrimeSense refers to the report as a "recycled rumor," saying only that it "does not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing." According to the report, Apple is hounding after the motion sensing tech to improve Apple TV, noting that the original deal was delayed due to legal issues. Hungry for more? Brush up on your Hebrew and check out the source link below - but keep your salt shaker handy.

Willow Garage is a company of some renown in the world of robotics. While it's known primarily for the bots it builds, the company may one day be more famous for its alumni and the spinoff firms it has spawned. Unbounded Robotics is the latest such company, and its creation is the UBR-1, a sort of smaller, cheaper, one-armed relative of Willow Garage's famed PR2. The UBR-1 has been built to aid both academic researchers and make business automation (think stocking shelves or inspecting products) more affordable. How affordable? It's just $35K, as compared to the $285,000 or $400,000 price tag on the PR2.

In industry parlance, the UBR-1 is a mobile manipulation platform, which in plain english means it's a robot that can see where it's going, move itself around and manipulate objects using its arm. Unbounded designed the thing to interact and work with humans, so the company chose a gender neutral color scheme and skinned it with rounded friendly edges -- so as to avoid any untoward associations with the forthcoming robot apocalypse. Slideshow-101561

Israeli news source Calcalist has a decent track record when it comes to acquisition gossip, even if the gossip itself sometimes comes to nothing. Bearing that in mind, the latest rumor is that Apple is "in talks" to buy PrimeSense, the company that worked with Microsoft to create the first-generation Kinect (but not Kinect 2.0) and which could potentially help Cupertino with new projects that require natural interfaces. The value of the acquisition is said to "probably" be around $280 million, although the source makes it clear these talks are at a very early stage. Whichever way things go, the immediate effect of a report like this is to add to the impression that PrimeSense has a future beyond the Xbox 360 -- but, frankly, we already believed it did.

[Thanks, Ron]

Update: We just received a statement from PrimeSense, indicating that they don't comment on rumors:

"PrimeSense is growing the company and currently has by far the leading 3D technology in the market, tier one prospects, strong revenues and a healthy cash position.

We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and Natural Interaction to the mass market in a variety of industries. We can't comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we are not commenting on rumors."

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Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:25:00 -040021|20666772http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/21/the-daily-roundup-for-06-21-2013/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/21/the-daily-roundup-for-06-21-2013/http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/21/the-daily-roundup-for-06-21-2013/%3Futm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%23commentsYou might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

When PrimeSense founder Aviad Maizels put a prototype of a 3D sensor on a chip in front of Microsoft in 2006, he had no idea it would lead to the biggest turning point in the Israeli startup's history. Four years later, its partnership with the Redmond giant resulted in Kinect, the motion-sensing camera that made headlines around the world. In 2013, however, Microsoft unveiled an all-new Kinect, the result of years of entirely in-house development -- without PrimeSense's assistance. As fate would have it, the company returned to its chip-making origins a year ago, creating a new product called Capri, a cheaper, lower-power and tinier version of its 3D system-on-a-chip; so tiny, in fact, that it's designed to be embedded inside tablets, laptops, thin displays and smartphones. With 3D use cases that go far beyond Dance Central, the Capri is the latest sign that PrimeSense is ready to break free from its video game roots.

PrimeSense brought the Kinect to life with its 3D sensor tech and a four-year cooperative effort back in 2010. When it comes to the new tracking peripheral, though, Microsoft kept matters in-house and the Israeli startup set out to prove that its ready to break from those gaming roots. In a brand new issue of our weekly, we examine the outfit's post-Microsoft aspirations that include the Capri chip. Eyes-On cleans up with Dyson's latest, Weekly Stat dials in streaming radio numbers and Visualized examines BioRob's feline-esque robot. All of that and much more awaits via those trusty download repositories just down below.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Take the 3D sensor inside the Microsoft Kinect, shrink it down to a tenth of its original size and add a bunch of mobile capabilities, and you have yourself PrimeSense's latest conquest, better known as Capri. The company, which is the brains behind the Kinect, has been openly working on bringing a tiny-yet-advanced 3D experience to tablets, televisions and smartphones for quite some time now. And it's proud enough of its progress so far that it's willing to give some real-life demonstrations to developers attending Google I/O. You may not see Capri embedded on the PCB of your portable gadget anytime soon -- at least, not until PrimeSense winds up wooing the pants off a lucky OEM or two -- so in the meantime, the company has connected the sensor board to the Nexus 10 via micro-USB.

Unlike the Kinect, however, PrimeSense doesn't think gestures will play a significant role in how we use Capri to interact with our gadgets. Rather, it seems to be more focused on 3D-based use case scenarios, many of which haven't even been thought up yet. As you'll see in the video below, we were shown an AR game that takes the environment around you -- walls, furniture and other elements -- and uses them as restrictions, just as much as they would be in real life. In another app, Capri snapped a three-dimension shot of an object on the table in front of us, captured its measurements and let us export that image to another device or even a 3D printer. In many respects, PrimeSense appears to be taking the same strategy Google does with Glass: get developers excited about the tech in the hopes they'll come up with clever uses for it. And while the company isn't ready to put Capri in their hands yet, the SDK is up for grabs, and I/O is no doubt an ideal place to build excitement for it. If you're looking for more info, we have a gallery, video and press release below, and you'll find the SDK at the More Coverage link.

Quad-core smart TVs? Move over, Samsung and Haier, because another company's now joining the party. At a press event in Beijing yesterday, Chinese video content provider LeTV announced its first TV series dubbed "Super TV." Despite the cheesy name, there are a handful of big names behind it: Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works, Qualcomm, Foxconn and Sharp. The last two aren't surprising considering Foxconn's parent company, Hon Hai, is an investor of Sharp as well as LeTV. It's also worth noting, though, that Hon Hai already has a deal with RadioShack to make and sell a 60-inch TV, the RS60-V1, in China since January.

The flagship X60 (pictured above at GMIC Beijing) features an aluminum alloy body that encases Sharp's 10th-generation 60-inch 1080p panel -- as featured on the RadioShack TV -- with 120Hz 3D, on top of a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Prime MPQ8064 (with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 320 graphics), dual-band WiFi and S/PDIF optical output. You can also add an optional 2.4GHz gyroscopic remote control and a PrimeSense motion sensor just for giggles. But most importantly, LeTV now streams over 2,000 TV apps as well as some 90,000 TV episodes and 5,000 movies for free (LeTV claims to own the rights to 95 percent of the video content). So, the ¥6,999 or $1,140 price tag seems a steal for the X60. There will also be a 39-inch 1080p (likely 2D only), dual-core S40 model priced at ¥1,999 or about $330, and both TVs will be available by the end of June.Gallery-187824

Though we wrote about it last month, PrimeSense is showing off its Capri sensor for the first time at CES 2013. As a refresher, the Capri is about ten times smaller than the company's existing 3D-sensing chip, which incidentally make up the guts of Microsoft's Kinect. With the help of potential OEMs, the Tel Aviv-based firm hopes the cheaper and tinier sensor will make it in tablets, laptops, cell phones and many other consumer-level products beyond the niche realm of video games. We saw an example of how it could be built into a Nexus 7 tablet as seen above, though the company didn't have any Capri-compatible applications it could show us. Combined with implementations in retail, robotics, healthcare and more, the Capri is just the latest attempt by PrimeSense to create a ubiquitous 3D-sensing environment. President and founder Aviad Maizels told us he would like it to be so universal that it's a "new way of living." We have a PrimeSense-produced concept video of just such a world after the break, along with close-up shots of the teeny weeny system-on-a-chip.

PrimeSense, the folks behind the guts of the Kinect and other motion-sensing tech, has unveiled a cheaper and tinier 3D sensor that could bring motion sensors to a whole different class of products. Dubbed the Capri, the new system-on-a-chip is about ten times smaller than existing sensing devices -- not only can it be embedded in tablets and laptops, it'll likely fit in a mobile phone as well. The company will be showing it off come CES and samples will be available for OEMs starting mid-2013. If this means we can go all Jedi mind trick and wave our hands over our phones to shut it off, then we're definitely looking forward to seeing this in action. Seriously, because there's no picture to be had at the moment.

PrimeSense, the Israeli company whose 3D sensors helped make the Kinect such a massive hit for gamers and hackers alike, has been dipping its feet in the robotic waters a bit as of late. The company offered up its sensors for use in iRobot's telecommunication 'bot, Ava, and now they've made their way into SAMI, a robot platform created by France's CRIIF. PrimeSense sensors are found in the robot's torso (for detecting people) and base (to help it avoid bumping into objects). SAMI's got a pretty broad spectrum of potential applications, including manufacturing and healthcare -- of course, before it goes mainstream in the latter field, we'd recommend a few aesthetic changes to the creepy robot, which took around $100,000 and six people to make. Still we've got to give SAMI some credit for keeping so darn fit. Check out video of the 'bot after the break.

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Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:42:00 -040021|20282035http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/18/asus-updates-xtion-pro-motion-sensor-makes-it-even-more-like-ki/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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Remember the Xtion Pro and Wavi Xtion motion sensors that ASUS showed off at CES? Well, fast-forward six months and there's already an updated model on the market: the Windows- and Linux-compatible Xtion Pro Live. The new version complements the original's IR and depth sensors with a Kinect-like VGA webcam and a pair of microphones, while also jacking up the bill to a distinctly un-Kinect-like 175 Euros ($300). That price tag won't make us shift our living room furniture around anytime soon, especially since Kinect is already officially heading to the PC. However, that isn't really the point: the Pro Live edition is primarily meant to help developers design better games and apps for the more consumer-focused but as yet unreleased Wavi. Soon as they develop a game that rewards rather than punishes us for dancing like Tina Turner, we'll be right there.

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Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:11:00 -040021|19993387http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/11/asus-wavi-xtion-motion-sensing-control-system-demoed-at-ces/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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ASUS may not be anywhere close to ready for its Wavi Xtion to hit retail shelves (we're hearing Q2 of 2012), but that didn't stop our brethren over at Engadget Spanish from stopping by for a hands-on demonstration at CES. We'll spare you the details on how it works, but in practice, we learned that it's quite similar to Kinect. Not shocking considering that PrimeSense is behind both boxes, but the primarily difference seemed to be the reaction time. ASUS' solution wasn't quite as snappy as the Kinect, being slower to recognize and translate motions in testing. Of course, we wouldn't expect a product that's 18 months out from mass production to be completely on top of its game, but feel free to head on past the break to see exactly what we mean.

If you're looking for an awesome, impractical way to make music with your computer (and who isn't?) please direct your attention to the following Kinect hack. Shinect, the brainchild of a YouTube user named Shinyless, uses motion detection to turn you into a MIDI controller! The current implementation gives the operator two virtual pads that can be activated by the old Jersey Shore fist pump -- and if that ain't enough, the sounds can be pitchshifted by raising / lowering the other arm. Pretty sweet, huh? This thing uses OpenNI, and while he's demonstrating it using FruityLoops it should work with any MIDI device. Things are pretty rough'n ready at the moment, although he promises big things in the future. In the meantime, check out the proof-of-concept in the video after the break.

From enhancing your WoW game to putting you in Tom Hanks's shoes, DIYers the world o'er really do seem to love Kinect. And what do we have here? Taylor Veltrop's Veltrobot remote telepresence 'bot uses the PrimeSense open source Kinect drivers for tracking the user's skeleton, with a modified Kondo KHR-1HV mirroring the operator's movements (which are received via 802.11n WiFi). Right now he is only controlling the arms, but with any luck we should be seeing complete control over all the robot's movements soon enough. Once the thing is finalized, Veltrop plans on releasing an open source development kit. And then? That's right: robot avatars for everyone!

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:16:00 -050021|19784471http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/primesense-and-asus-team-bring-kinect-like-wavi-xtion-to-your-h/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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PrimeSense provides some of the brains behind Microsoft's Kinect, and wants a bigger piece of the pie; ASUS has a reputation for announcing wonderfullywackyperipherals every year. At CES 2011, the Wavi Xtion will check off both boxes nicely. In a nutshell, the Xtion is a PrimeSense 3D depth camera built exclusively for PC, but with an important twist -- it connects to a pair of ASUS Wavi boxes, which wirelessly streams its data to your living room PC between your TV and a Windows PC over the 5GHz band. Oh, and should ASUS attract enough developers, it will even pull down applications from an Xtion online store. ASUS says we'll see the package commercially available around the world in Q2 of next year -- with a UI and selection of apps and games on board -- but they'll release an Xtion PRO developer kit in February to tempt all you Kinect hackers into coding magical things for the platform. No more details for now, but there's an event in Vegas this week where ASUS is all but guaranteed to show it off. PR after the break.

Update: Did we say HTPC? Turns out it doesn't quite work that way -- the Wavi are actually a pair of boxes that wirelessly sling data between them. You put the Xtion sensor on top of your TV, connect it to Wavi #1, then plug Wavi #2 into a PC up to 25 meters away. Mind you, it looks like the Xtion may not be quite as capable as Microsoft's unit, as there's only infrared hardware inside -- it might be fine for gesture control, but don't expect any augmented reality lightsaber fights. See some mockups below!
Gallery-112375

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:11:00 -050021|19784524http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/24/kinemote-kinect-gesture-control-for-boxee-and-xbmc-media-center/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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We've seen plenty of Kinect hacks over the last few weeks -- trouble is, beyond the initial wow factor they're just not very useful on a daily basis. That situation just changed, however, with the release of KinEmote, a free public beta that lets Windows users navigate XBMC and Boxee menus using nothing but hand gestures. Better yet, the software is built around OpenNI and NITE middleware from PrimeSense, the company behind the Project Natal reference gear. It certainly looks impressive in the video after the break. Good enough that we suspect many of you will hit up the source link below instead of finishing up your last minute holiday shopping -- hey, Santa can wait, this is progress!

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Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:12:00 -050021|19776137http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/22/kinect-rumored-to-have-pc-support-in-waiting/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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There's been no shortage whatsoever of PC control schemes using Kinect, but up until now, every bit of it has been without Microsoft's official blessing. Of course, the company eventually caved to the massive amount of hacking going on and confessed that it didn't have any hard feelings for those giving it a whirl, but is it really fixing to take things one step further with bona fide PC support? That's the talk emanating from South Korea, where game developer GamePrix has reported that at least one of its titles (Divine Soul, if you must know) is "scheduled to support Kinect." Continuing on about the game, the company's Jason Lim was quoted as saying that "Kinect will soon be available as a new PC controller," but naturally, we've our doubts. For starters, why wouldn't Microsoft be working with a more major developer if honest-to-goodness PC-Kinect interactions were planned? Secondly, there's a definite possibility that GamePrix could really be referring to unofficial support, which would make everything seem a lot more sensible. Either way, we'll definitely be keeping an ear to the ground for more, and with GDC under three months away, we ought to know the truth sooner rather than later.

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Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:56:00 -050021|19773401http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/21/kinect-admits-itself-to-hospital-treated-for-gesture-control-of/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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At this point, we all have a serious question to ask: is there anything the Kinectcan't do? While Microsoft has managed to move quite a few of the camera-laden tubes, a good amount of 'em have been put to use in applications not named gaming. Take the Virtopsy Project, for instance. This particular setup uses the Kinect camera bar to control a PACS system (OsiriX, in this case), and it relies on software based on "ofxKinect, libfreenect and open frameworks." That's a lot of technobabble for sure, but as they say, the proof is in the YouTube video. Ever dreamed of swirling medical images around with hand gestures? Head on down and mash play -- fantasyland awaits.

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Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:38:00 -050021|19772057http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/15/primesenses-openni-provides-the-best-kinect-drivers-yet-from-s/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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We've been so wrapped up in Kinect hacks lately that we actually missed a Kinect non-hack that emerged last week. PrimeSense, who built the initial Project Natal reference hardware for Microsoft, has released its own open source drivers for the Kinect. PrimeSense is working with Willow Garage (best known for its open source ROS robot operating system), and Side-Kick (a motion gaming startup) through a new OpenNI organization it set up, and the trio will be combining their powers for good. The OpenNI framework will cover low-level hardware support (drivers for actual cameras and other sensors), and high-level visual tracking (turning your body into a 3D avatar that kicks ass in a virtual world). This should be a boon to an already vibrant Kinect hacking community, and if the video above is any indication, we aren't far from Kinect-level interaction and gameplay on our lowly PCs.

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Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:14:00 -050021|19763558http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/30/microsoft-buys-canesta-continues-camera-based-domination-of-our/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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It seems that Microsoft's taken the camera to heart following its dismissal of the pen -- the company bought 3DV, collaborated with PrimeSense on Kinect, and today it's apparently finalized a deal to acquire 3D CMOS camera chipmaker Canesta as well. In case you've already forgotten, the latter company is the one that made an paid actor look particularly smug last year, by allowing the gent to control his television with a flick of the wrist. Things have progressed a good bit further than that, however, as you'll see in a demo video after the break, and Canesta president and CEO Jim Spare says he expects the company's stuffs to "see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology" under Microsoft's reign. Press release after the break.

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Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:22:00 -040021|19696265http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/07/microsoft-pulls-apart-a-kinect-camera-tickles-your-non-gaming-f/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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Tease as much as you want, Sony, but things get real serious when you flip to the other side and look at the magic behind Microsoft's Kinect camera. Recently, T3 was able to get behind the scenes for a quick lesson on how this Xbox 360 peripheral works, and as part of the tour, it also saw the innocent sensor sitting bare naked in the lab. As pictured above, this little device actually has a lot to pack in -- namely a RGB camera for facial recognition plus video capturing, a depth sensor (an infrared projector paired with a monochrome CMOS camera) for movement tracking, four downward-facing mics for voice recognition, a quiet motor in the bulky base for rotation, and all the circuitry components to link them up. Head over to the source link for a detailed briefing -- but we all know you're just gonna go straight to the gallery of Redmond's naughty pics.